, 1887-07-30
THE CARE OF CLIPPINGS.
Hints to Literary Folk Who are Prone to
Use Scissors and Paste.

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Hints to Literary Folk Who are Prone to
Use Scissors and Paste.
Probably no one who has had any lit
erary work in hand has not made more
or less effort to systematic his pamphlets,
newspapers and notes by the way of such
classification as shall make them easy of
reference. h usual experience of scrap
books is an experience of failure.
Commonplace books, too, are tried by
hundreds, n while these are somewhat
better, they fail to provide for the CLASH
hcatlon and reference of cuttings. Com
monplace books serve for citations or for
the record of your own thoughts. But
their sphere is a limited one, and they
have the same trouble as the scrapbook-
it is almost impossible to index them.
The scrapbook and the commonplace
book, though they are good things in
their way, are thus of real practical serv-
ice in the hands of but few. A thing
pasted is a thing spoiled. A common
place book entry is apt to be a thing hid
den and inaccessible. Is there no better
way?
There is a much better way. There is
asimple system of classification by boxes
or pigeon holes, which suits cuttings,
pamphlets. manuscript notes, and, in
short, memoranda of all kinds. 1t is q
system which originated in the ingenious
brain OF an Italian librarian some years
ago, and one which has been applied with
great elaborateness to the classification of
books in the Columbia College library in
New York city, under the expert admin
istration of Mr.. Melvil Dewey. The
method is a simple one. First classify
your cuttings, notes, pamphlets, mem
OlAnun- under ten 1nrirnoru
heads then subclassify them decimally,
according to the amount of matter under
each head to be classified. In this sub
division each number will represent a sub
Ject, and the subjects may be subdivided
indefinitely. For an ordinary collection
of cuttings begin with ten boxes, each
box to contain its appropriate topic. The
ten topics are in order as follows: 90.
General Works: as photography, CYCLIC
paedlas, periodicals, newspapers, book
rarities. 10. Philosophy: as metaphys-
les, logic, psychology, ethics. 20, Re
Iigion. 30. Sociology: as statistics,
law, education, customs, folk lore. 40.
Philology: all the languages. so. Nat
ural Science: mathematics, astronomy,
physics, chemistry, geology, botany and
the rest. go. Useful Arts: medicine,
engineering, technology, commerce, build
ing, etc. 20. Fine Arts. 80. Litera-
ture. 30. History.
These are the ten serviceable divisions
of all knowledge, according to the scheme.
To each is allotted a box. When any box
overtlows, add as many subdivisions in
new boxes as are needed. Thus, if under
so, Literature, there is an excess, the sub
division 81 will be for American literature,
so for English, S3 for French, and so on.
Each division can be subdivided as often
as is needed, even into several places of
decimals, as in Columbia College library;
and each number will express the char
acter of the subject, according to the
elaborate scheme which Mr.. Dewey has
printed. But the beauty of the system is
that it applies as well to the smallest as
to the largest collection. You may not
fill ten boxes at once, but begin with ten.
The scheme is equally applicable t. a
collection of newspaper cuttings, and to
the largest library.
The classification is one that l have
tried with most successful results. The
humble on each box indicates the subject
down to any required degree of particu-
larity. A glance show where a given
cutting, pamphlet or manuscript needed
will be found, and as a given subject ex-
pands the overflow goes into new boxes.
I should explain that in filling the boxes
it will often happen that some of the ar
ticles seem to fall equally well under two
divisions. In this case, to avoid any pos
sible doubt, l have recourse to a cata-
logue of entry slips, in which 1 record the
place of the doubtful article. Suppose,
for instance, l have a pamphlet on THE
History of Science" To make sure l
should not search first under History and
then under Science before finding it, I
enter this pamphlet under the authors
name, and refer to box 90, Science. In
this way the work of indexing is reduced
to q minimum; for nine-tenths of the ar
ticles classified find themselves, as it were,
and the index is needed only in a few
cases like this 1 have mentioned. Another
great advantage of this plan is hat moth
ing is pasted down. Everything is NOV
able, and everything can be used in new
combination .-Titus Munson Coan in The
Writer.